March 31, 2014

It'sdifficult to believe that 260-something, two-and-a-half-foot-tall eggs created by artists could be hard to find in New York City, but they will. And they'll be fun to find, too. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Forget oysters. For Brooklyn-based performance artist Maria Hupfield (Wasauksing First Nation) right now, the world is her egg. And she’s hopeful New Yorkers will have fun finding it.

A little confused? Don't be. The mystery surrounding what is likely to become one of the most popular Big Apple springtime events will be revealed when the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt kicks off tomorrow, April 1. Earlier hunts garnered much attention in the U.K. and Ireland. This year marks the event’s New York City debut.

Here’s how it will work: The organizers of the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt challenged more than 260 globally renowned artists, designers, and creatives—including Hupfield—to transform two-and-a-half-foot egg forms into compelling three-dimensional artistic masterpieces. The eggs are placed in secret locations “high and low” throughout the five boroughs. From April 1 through 17, the public is invited to take part in the hunt via a special smart-phone app, with incredible gemstone prizes from Fabergé serving as an incentive. From April 18 through 25, all the eggs will be on view in a free public exhibition at Rockefeller Center.

Left: Performanceartist Maria Hupfield at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Right: Bandolier bag with Woodland decoration (detail), made by Hupfield of industrial felt. Photos by Paul Niemi, NMAI.

Hupfield’s personal work explores universal conditions, locating the body in relationship to self, objects, and place. She was a logical choice to participate, not only because she has made a name for herself internationally with work featured at New York's Museum of Arts and Design and theVancouver Art Gallery in the last couple of years, but also because of her lifelong immersion in craft. Craft was a big part of her upbringing as a member of the Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario, Canada. She is descended from a line of “makers,'” as she calls them—Hupfield’s father is a boat-builder, and many of her aunts make traditional quill boxes.

Hupfieldcreates beauty out of practical materials. Photos courtesy of the artist.

Accustomed to replicating everyday objects (a camera, for instance) in gray industrial felt for her art practice, Hupfield explains that she likes to think with her hands—to create things that show practicality as well as real aesthetic appreciation. “I work across different disciplines,” she says. Some of her pieces stand alone, sculpturally; others are used in performance to “activate them.”

When it came to cracking the design of her big egg, Hupfield admits, “I have never created something of that scale.” Hupfield’s traditional Anishinaabe culture, though, outweighed her lack of large-scale project experience. “My artwork is about ideas that are greatly informed by my upbringing and where I come from.” She recently used traditional Eastern Woodland floral patterns to adorn objects used in performance pieces that celebrate the exhibition Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes, on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York through June 13. Hupfield found great inspiration in the innate shape of the egg and went to work translating the her relief designs.

Hupfield's sculpture dons itsgray flannel suit—a clever disguise for an artwork that hopes to pass as just another businessegg in the city. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Hupfield contends that while she was given the same form as other artists, her egg offers something a little bit different. “It’s soft, huggable, and beautiful. You won’t necessarily be able to touch it, but there’s definitely a sense of tactileness,” she explains. “I'm excited to see how people respond to it.”

She’ll have to wait. Once ten people have found her egg, its location will be revealed. For now, not even Hupfield has an inkling where that may be. Event organizers expect the locations of all the eggs to go public by the end of the first week.

One important thing you can know now is that the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt in New York is a charity event. Each egg will be auctioned off to the public online, with bidding beginning April 1 on the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt website. Funds raised this year will go to support Elephant Family and Studio in a School.

Starting April 1, the event website is also the easiest place to go to download the egg hunt app.

Paul Niemi is an arts and culture writer and a Museum Ambassador at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. The quotations in this piece are from Paul’s recent interview with Maria Hupfield at the museum.

July 18, 2013

The Living
Earth Festival, a signature event of the National Museum of the American Indian, will take place this weekend, July 19 through 21. This annual festival
celebrates indigenous contributions to environmental sustainability, knowledge, and activism. For a full listing of events, please see the online calendar or downloadable festival brochure. Here are some highlights for visitors of all ages and many different interests.

What activities can families do together? Adults and children in particular are invited to:

Lisan Tiger Blair with the work that won him 1st place in youth sculpture at the 91st Santa Fe Indian Art Market, August 2012; photo by Dana Tiger, courtesy of the artist.

Help release lady
bugs into the NMAI garden (outside the museum's South Entrance along Maryland Avenue) at 10 AM Friday.

Participate in a sculpting workshop led by award-winning young artist Lisan Tiger Blair (Mvskoke Creek) in
the imagiNATIONS Activity Center. There are workshops several times each day. Please pick up free timed-entry tickets in advance at the
Activity Center.

Join Victoria Mitchell (Cherokee Nation) for a
pottery demonstration.

See amazing beadwork made by Peggy Fontenot (Potawatomi).

Enjoy an outdoor cooking demonstration by Patricia Alexander (Pawnee/Creek) or
a cheesemaking demonstration by Nancy Coonridge of Pietown, New Mexico.

Farmers market and green-chile roasting, NMAI photo.

For organic gardeners, locavores, gourmet cooks, and just plain food-lovers: During the festival, representatives of tribally owned food cooperatives discuss sustainability, and local famers offer produce, meat, and traditional American Indian foods in an outdoor farmers market. The festival
begins for foodies Friday morning at 10 AM with the opening of the farmer’s market and a
green-chile roasting (both outdoors in the Welcome Plaza throughout the festival). Demonstrations of traditional Native dishes, including venison stew,
corn soup, and grape dumplings (outdoors in the Akaloa Firepit), begin Friday at 1 PM and continue all weekend. Sunday from 1:30 to 4:30 PM, Native chefs Freddie Bitsoie (Navajo) and Don McClellan (Cherokee) will compete in an Iron Chef-style cook off (outdoors in the Welcome Plaza).

Saturday afternoon singer and violinist Quetzal Guerrero (noon), contemporary Six Nations rocker Shawnee Talbot, aka She KIng (12:30 PM), and the LA fusion band Ozomatli (2 PM) join the roster of performers. Saturday evening at 5 PM, the three groups will present a longer concert as part of the museum's series Indian Summer Showcase. All music and dance performances take place in the air-conditioned Potomac Atrium.

Are you
looking for a Friday evening program? The film series Dinner and a Movie offers cuisine from our Zagat-rated Mitsitam Café, available for purchase from
5 to 6:30 PM, followed by
the movie Watershed, showing from 7 to 8:30 PM in the museum's Rasmuson Theater.
Watershed highlights people who live and work in the Colorado River Basin, including Jeff Ehlert, a fly fishing guide in Rocky Mountain
National Park, and Navajo Council member Glojean Todacheene.
These people convey their new water ethic by sharing stories that
answer the question, How do we balance the competing interests of cities,
agriculture, recreation, wildlife, and indigenous communities all with rights to
water?

The Colorado River from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon; photo by Michael Quinn, National Park Service.

At the heart of the festival each year is the Living Earth Symposium. For 2013, the symposium presents Tribal ecoAmbassadors. Saturday July 20, from 2:30 to 4 PM, join us in the Rasmuson Theater to hear Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists, tribal college and university professors, and Native students describe how Native communities and individuals are developing innovative and locally relevant solutions to protect the environment and public health. Presenters include EcoAmbassadors from the Navajo Nation and the Tohono O’odham Nation who will address grassroots efforts to reduce carbon on their reservations and provide housing in their local communities.

ecoAmbassador David Stone and students from Tohono O’odham Community College take a break on a bench made entirely on carbon-negative materials; photo courtesy of the EPA.

All programs and activities are free and open to the public. As noted above, free timed-entry tickets to the sculpting workshop with Lisan Tiger Blair are avaiable in the imagiNATIONS Activity Center; it might be wise to begin your visit there. Indian Summer Showcase concerts are always very popular and Saturday's promises to be no exception. Seating in the Potomac Atrium is first come, first served.

Comments (18)

I like the work of Shawnee SheKing, Lynn Talbot (Mirror me, This is me etc). I was trying to see if there was a connection in her work with Aboriginal music. It would be great to live close enough to visit the Living Earth Festival to see such energy and creativity. Living in Australia makes it difficult. I enjoy Rap and Hip Hop and I found one of Shawnee's creations sung in that genre. That such energy and creative minds are also involved in protecting the environment, not just here but also in other countries makes me have hope for humankind. I enjoyed reading about the activities planned, with a big sigh at not being able to be there..

In reply to my own comment I listened to Shawnee SheKing singing "She is King" (rap type). I hear drumming connections with Shawnee drumming and the Mohawk drums I have found on the Internet and the sounds made by Iriquois water drums. Of course this could be entirely in my own head. I also loved the haunting sounds of the Mohawk flute music from the smoke dance.

The music was AMAZING! Especially Ozomatl. I was lucky enough to see their first show back in 1995. I collect water drums- have 4 amazing ones and 1 that I am working to restore. Working on training my voice so I can do something similar like Ozomatl.

The music was AMAZING! Especially Ozomatl. I was lucky enough to see their first show back in 1995. I collect water drums- have 4 amazing ones and 1 that I am working to restore. Working on training my voice so I can do something similar like Ozomatl.

April 03, 2013

Rob Lamothe and the band, from left to right: Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Rob Lamothe, Rose Lamothe, and Zander Lamothe. Photo courtesy of the artists. Used with permission.

Last summer singer,
songwriter, and producer Rob Lamothe helped kick off the opening of the exhibition
Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture at the National
Museum of the American Indian in New York. He and his band will return to perform
at the museum Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m. Supporting Rob are talented band members bassist
Ryan Johnson, guitarist Ronnie Johnson, drummer Zander Lamothe, and vocalist and
pianist Rose Lamothe. Together they will take the stage in the Up Where We Belong gallery and pay tribute to the artists featured in the exhibition with a set of iconic songs and some of their own personal favorites. The concert is free and open to the public; invite friends to attend via the museum's Rob Lamothe event page on Facebook.

For the past 30 years, Rob has enjoyed an
award-winning career with songs on the Billboard charts in the U.S.
He has shared stages with everyone from Gun 'n' Roses to Ron Sexsmith. His songs are heard on hit TV shows like Melrose Place and the
long-running Australian soap opera Paradise Beach. And Rolling Stone Europe has said he's got an "out-of-this-world soulful voice.”

In the last several years, Rob has
devoted much of his musical energy to working with
some of North America's pre-eminent Native artists. Rob has recorded with
award-winning artist David Maracle (Aboriginal Peoples Choice Awards, Canadian
Aboriginal Music Awards, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, etc). Rob
teaches at Interprovincial Music Camp with Juno Award-winner Derek Miller from
Six Nations Mohawk territory and internationally renowned guitarist,
producer, and American Idol music director Stevie Salas (Apache). Rob's deep commitment to community is reflected in his work with young people from the
Nimkee Nupigawagan Healing Centre in Muncey, Ontario, and in his job running the Emergency Housing
Program for the province's Haldimand and Norfolk counties.

The band's up-and-coming
young bassist Ryan Johnson has opened
for musicians Derek Miller, Pappy Johns Band, and others on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Inspired by classic rock bands from the ’60s and ’70s, Johnson and his band earned a 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards nomination.

Guitarist Ronnie
Johnson (unrelated to Ryan Johnson) hails from the Six
Nations of the Grand River territory, where he grew up hearing blues and rock. By creating music that makes people dance—playing bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar with The Blues Brigade and Midnight Lightning for the past five years—Ronnie has “followed in the
storied tradition of legendary Six Nations blues musicians.”

Named “Drummer of the
Year” at the 2012 Hamilton Music Awards, Zander Lamothe has rocked in numerous
Canadian and European tour shows. With his drumming featured behind artists City and Colour, Melissa McClelland, and others, this zealous artist has drummed his way from California to New York.

Beginning her musical career, 16-year-old Rose Lamothe accompanies the
band with her singing and piano skills. Rose has been honored to be mentored by musicians such
as Bernard Fowler from the Rolling Stones and Donna Grantis from Prince.

The music will kick off at 6 p.m. on the Up Where We Belong gallery stage at the National Museum of the
American Indian in New York, located at One Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. This show is guaranteed to be a
crowd-pleaser and a real treat for visitors who want to experience a concert inside of a
gallery surrounded by the history of Native icons of music.

—Aimee Beltramini

Aimee Beltramini is an intern in
the Public Affairs and Visitor Services Departments at the National Museum of
the American Indian in New York.

Native Sounds Downtown! with Rob Lamothe, Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Zander Lamothe, and Rose LamotheThursday, April 25, at 6 p.m.National Museum of the American Indian in New York

December 12, 2012

Will the world
end come to an end on December 21? We
certainly hope not; we have some great webcasts coming up in January and February. But before we mention those, there’s a full weekend of webcasts to watch from the museum's Guatemalan festival December 15 & 16.

The name of
festival,which takes place throughout the museum, is Bak´tun 13: A Guatemalan
Celebration of Time. 13 Bak´tun—the date on the Maya Long Count calendar coinciding with December 21, 2012—marks the end of a 5,125-year era and a new beginning as the Long Count resets. Guatemala is the heart of traditional Maya territory, which
extends through most of Central America, including southern Mexico, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize. Far from reaching the end of time, the Maya are very much a living culture
today. Definitely something to celebrate!

The Ways of the Days: Maya Calendar Tradition and the Way of Life Saturday, December 15, 11:30 am EST

Roderico
Teni is a Maya–Qeqchi culture bearer who has worked on cultural preservation
and social improvement in Maya communities of the Guatemalan highlands. He is
also a Maya day-keeper, one of the spiritual guides who advise communities, in part by consulting the 260-day sacred calendar, Tzolk´in (called the Chol Q´ij in K´iche´ Mayan). Jose
Barreiro, director of the museum’s Office of Latin American, will facilitate conversation about the Maya calendar and culture.
Audience participation is welcomed, and our webcast audience is encouraged to participate via Twitter. Tweet your comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the
hashtag #MayaCalendar.

Maya from the Inside: The 13 Bak´tun as Challenge to the Western Mind Saturday, December 15, 2 pm EST

Dr. Victor Montejo. Photo used with permission

Victor
Montejo, a Jakaltek Maya originally from Guatemala, will talk on the deep meaning of Maya culture and
history. An internationally recognized scholar, Dr. Montejo is the author of several major publications, including Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan
Village; Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History; Maya
Intellectual Renaissance: Critical Essays on Identity, Representation and
Leadership; Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Mayas; and Q´anil: Man of Lightning. His current projects focus on indigenous
migration and transnationalism, and developing a curriculum in Native
knowledge and epistemology in his new manuscript, Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures. The
audience will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of his
presentation. Again, webcast audience members may tweet comments and
questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the
hashtag #MayaCalendar.

Three events will be
featured in this webcast from the museum's Potomac Atrium: "Timeline of Guatemalan
Fashion" shines a spotlight on Maya textiles from the 1930s to
the present to show the changes that have impacted Maya textiles over
the last 80 years. Following the look at textiles, enjoy the music of the
traditional marimba under the direction of Fernando Salseño of Pequena
Marimba Internacional. Finally, Grupo AWAL presents traditional dances from
Concepcion Chiquirichapa in Guatemala. The dances are based on a cylindrical
calendar cycle.

Bak’tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time Sunday, December 16, 3 pm EST

Two
festival events are repeated in this webcast: Traditional marimba under the direction of Fernando Salseño of Pequena Marimba
Internacional and a presentation of traditional dances from Concepcion
Chiquirichapa in Guatemala Grupo AWAL.

Upcoming Webcasts | January & February 2013

Assuming the world doesn’t
end on December 21, more webcasts of events at the National Museum of the American
Indian are coming in January and February.

This Indian Country: American Indian Activists and the Place They MadeFriday, January 18, 2 to 3 pm EST

Join noted historian Frederick E. Hoxie as he talks about his new book, This Indian Country:
American Indian Activists and the Place They Made, about political activism
that led to hard-won victories in the courts and civil rights campaigns, rather than on the
battlefield. It is a story of both famous and obscure Indian lawyers, tribal
leaders, activists, and commentators who have sought to bridge the distance
between indigenous cultures and the political institutions of the United States
through legal and political debate. Dr. Hoxie’s powerful narrative connects
the individual to the tribe, the tribe to the nation, and the nation to broader
historical processes. Dr. Hoxie is the winner of the 2012 American Indian History
Lifetime Achievement Award and a founding trustee of the National Museum of the
American Indian.

Out of Many: A Multicultural Festival of Music, Dance, and Story January 18 to 20, 10 am to 5:30 pm EST

Who better than an Indian museum to say "Hail to the chief"? As our neighbor the U.S. Capitol hosts the presidential inauguration, we salute the occasion with a festival featuring music, dance,
and storytelling throughout the museum. Check our online calendar as inauguration weekend approaches to see what we’re offering online. E pluribus unam!

Racist Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation in American SportsThursday, February 7, 10 am to 5:45 pm EST

Illustration by Aaron Sechrist. Used with permission

Join us for a thought-provoking day examining one of the most
persistent issues that divides Natives and non-Natives in our sports-loving land. This symposium of panel discussions presents commentators, scholars, authors, and representatives from sports organizations exploring the
mythology and psychology of sports stereotypes and mascots, reaction to the NCAA’s policy against “hostile and abusive” names and
symbols, and the on-going debate about the name and logo
of the Washington, D.C., professional football organization. We invite the
webcast public to join us in the conversation through Twitter. Tweet your
comments and questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the
hashtag #RacistSportsLogos.

This program was originally scheduled for November 1, 2012, and was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

Missed a Webcast?

If you missed a live
webcast that you really wanted to see, don’t worry. We post nearly all of our
webcasts on the NMAI YouTube Channel. You may find the webcast
you're looking for in one of our playlists or by clicking the Browse Videos tab, where posted
videos appear in reverse chronological order.

Comments (0)

October 12, 2012

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Summer is over, but the fall is shaping up to be a great season for programs here at the National Museum of the American Indian. Many of these programs will be webcast live on our webcast page, http://nmai.si.edu/multimedia/webcasts. In addition to finding live webcasts, you can go to that page just about any time and see the webcast programs that will be coming up. Sometimes you will find the most recent webcast is still there for replaying. Most of our webcasts will be posted on our YouTube page in high definition video within a few days of the event. Check out our various playlists on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/SmithsonianNMAI to see past webcast events.

﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Poet and artist Jorge Luis Porrata will conduct a workshop designed for children and their families in this webcast that comes from the museum's imaginNATIONS Activity Center. Learn about the rich legacy and way of life of the Taino people throught the art of storytelling, artist's works and printmaking. In these hands-on activities, participants will create artwork based on Taino words commonly used in countries like Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Our first symposium of the fall will focus on indigenous knowledge of the sky. Also called archaeoastronomy or ethnoastronomy, cultural astronomy examines how the night sky provides spiritual and navigational guidance, timekeeping, weather prediction, and stories and legends that tell us how to live a proper life. Our panel of experts will present and compare Native traditions and sky wisdom from around the world. Gary Urton, the Dumbaron Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies at Harvard University, will speak on “Cosmologies aof the Milky Way: South American Views on the Unity of Earth and Sky.” Michael Wassegijig Price, an Anisihinaabe of the Wikwemikong First Nations will present “Underwater Panthers, Thunderbirds, and Anishinaabe Star Knowledge.” John MacDonald worked for 25 years as coordinaor of he Igloolik Research Center where he collaborated closely with Inuit elders to record and document oral history and traditional knowledge of the region. He will speak on “The Arctic Sky: Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and legend.” Babatunde Lawal, professor of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, specializes in African And African Diaspora art. He will reveal African traditions in “A Big Calabash with Two Halves: The Yoruba Vision of the Cosmos.”

The museum begins Native American Heritage Month with a thought-provoking day examining one of the most persistent issues that divides Native and non-Native in our sports-loving land. Join commentators, scholars, authors, and representatives from sports organizations for a Symposium of panel discussions on racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation in American sports. The distinguished panelists will explore the mythology and psychology of sports stereotypes and mascots, examine the retirement of “Native American” sports references and collegiate efforts to revive them despite the NCAA’s policy against “hostile and abusive” names and symbols, and engage in a lively community conversation about the name and logo of the Washington, D.C. professional football organization.

At the height of the civil rights movement, great strides in American Indian self-determination were made through key policies and legislation crafted by the Nixon White House. Tune in and learn from White House and administration officials who worked with President Nixon as they discuss the leadership, legislation, and litigation necessary to implement these policies and the implications they have for Native Americans then and today. The Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero, will deliver opening remarks. This event is cosponsored with the Richard Nixon Foundation and the National Archives.

﻿﻿

Social Media for Live Audiences

For some of our webcasts we will be displaying a Twitter hash tag and invite our live webcast audience to tweet comments or questions. We may also provide an email address for questions to direct to symposium speakers. We are still working out these kinds of details, but we will make it clear during the webcast how one may interact.

More to Come

The museum has many programs coming that will not be webcast, but planning for the events is an ongoing process, so it is likely that more events will get webcast requests. Keep an eye on our calendar page and check our NMAI blog to keep informed!